Abstract: The present invention provides a method for reliable stale packet recognition in a network. The method includes: labeling a packet with a super transaction identifier (STID), the STID uniquely indicating a transaction; sending the packet with the STID to the receiving router; and blocking the sent packet from transmission to the receiving node if a transaction timer for the transaction indicated by the STID has expired. The method adds a STID to each packet. Each transaction is assigned a unique STID by the sending router, and each packet of the transaction is labeled with this STID. The receiving router uses the STID to block duplicate packets with the same STID which arrive after the expiration of the transaction timer. In this manner, stale packets are reliably detected by the receiving router.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for acknowledgment of receipt of a message in a network, where the network includes a plurality of nodes. The method includes sending a message from a first node of the plurality of nodes destined for a second node of the plurality of nodes; setting a timer for the first node for receipt of an acknowledgment packet from the second node; determining if a wait acknowledge packet is received by the first node; and resetting the timer if the wait acknowledge packet is received by the first node. The present invention adds a wait acknowledge event to the state in the acknowledgment protocol which waits for an acknowledgement packet from the destination node. The wait acknowledge packet notifies the recipient that the message sent by the originating node has been received and forwarded. As long as the message is being properly forwarded to the next hop, wait acknowledge packets will continue to be sent to the originating node.